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A NrTEn STATES 'PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES W. GELTT, -OF OAKLAND, OALIEORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONEHALF TO EDWARD P. FLINT, OF SAME PLAGE.

MACHINE Foa THE MAN-UFACTURE F ICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 248,157, dated October 11, 1881.

l Application tiled February 24, 1880.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES W. GnLET'r, of Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented an Improvement in Machines for the Manufacture of Ice,

of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that part ot' an icemachiue known as the congealer 5 and it con-1 sists of a thin, hollow, rectangular plate hav- 1 o ing stops at intervals between the two freezing-` 2o this plate by letting an excess of hot gas or,

fluid from the`receiver pass through the hollow plate, which causes the ice to separate from the plates, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

In the accompanying` drawings, in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts, Figure 1 is a front elevation. Fig. 2 is a side l View of one ofthe con gealers, with apart broken away. Fig. 3 is a sectional edge view of a 3o portion ofthe plate. Fig. 4 is a section on line @c of Fig. 1, looking downward. Fig. 5 is a section on line m av of Fig.`l, looking upward.

In the congealing-room A, the walls ofwhich vmay be packed with sawdust to preserve a low temperature thereof, I place my congealerplates B. These are constructed rectangular in form,ofsufticient height and width,by employingtwo sheets,B B', of suitable thickness-#say No. l0 metal-ten feet lon g, and three and a half 4o or four feet wide, and rivet them through and through to strips or bars of iron placed between them at the edges, ends, and sides, so as to be perfectly gas-tight. In the chamber or space formed between these two plates I place metal stops c a *at an angle of about forty-tive degrees with the vertical position ot' the plates in alternate rows, an d so that the angle of inclination of one row will be opposed to the angleof inclination of the succeeding row, pre- 5o serving the uniformity of these stops throughout the whole chamberfrom top to bottom, exn

'that a thin stream 'have been enabled to produce one inch of good 'clear ice every hour. 'a rectangular position, as shown, upon brack- 6o ets or standards c c, so as to isolate them from lhc plates are placedin the walls ot' the roomY in which the freezing takes place.

For supplying the plates with waterl employ a series of pipes, C, one l'or each side of the 65 congealer, which a e tapped in the center, so f water is caused to pass from the pipes upon the plates near the top part thereof and drip down the sides to and fro'or backward and forward until ice ofthe 7o desired thickness is formed on both sides of the plates, the water for this purpose being supplied by a flexible hose attached to the pipes at C. Any suitable mechanism may be employed to move these water-pipes forwardand backward, and the thrust forward maybe made to that extent as to carry the stream beyond the congealer, and an iuterinittentstream upon the plates be had.

When the ice has reached thedesired thick- 8o ness on the sides of the congealers the stream of water upon the plates is shut oit' and the cock of the receiver D is turned wide open, and

a volume of hot gas or liquid is let in to the chamber fora few minutes, when the ice is de- 85. tached from the plates sufficiently, and so that Vit can be removed from the room by means of the truck upon whichitrests. Yet should any portion of the ice be frozen around the edges of the plates where the hot gas would not be 9c likely to reach by reason of the thick bars of metal to which the plates are riveted ,I employ a pipe, E, which is bent completely around the edges of the congealers, and through this pipe simultaneously with the passageof the hot gas through the plates I pass a constant stream of water at the ordinary temperature from a hydrant, which will permit the ic'eat those points to be easily broken away or detached simultaneously with the main body.

The truck F is simply a piece of timber of sufficient strength mounted upon caster-wheels,

IOO

so that they will turn at any point in a circle, and the truck, with the block ofice thereon,can be made to stand ont and away from the plates and trundled to a place of deposit of the ice.

Theoperation will be as follows, to wit: The pump G, having been p'ut in operation before any ofthe refrigerant has been admitted to the plates, will create a vacuum of about twothirds of an atmosphere, when the cock d of the receiver D is opened to admit a small volume of the refrigerant into thelower end of the plate through the pipe c. This luid passes upward, meeting with resistance from the stops, which retards the passage thereof in such a manner a-s to rapidly absorb the heat from the water which is being distributed on both sides of the plate in a thin stream, and causes theiee to form on the plates. From the chamber of the plates the gas or refrigerant is drawn into the pump and forced ont, on the pressure side thereof, into an ordinary condensing-coil (not shown) situated at the top of the machine, and thence returned to the receiverD to be used over again, in the usual 'ay in the manufacture of ice. Vhen the ice has formed ot' sufficient thickness on the plates so that it becomes necessary to remove it, I open wide the cock (l of the pipe e, which leads from the receiver D to the plates, and let ilow a full volume of the liquid into the hollow plate, continuing the ilow for a few minutes, at the same time letting in water at the ordinary temperaturc through the pipe E, which surrounds the edges ofthe plate, when the ice can be readily detached from both sides and edges thereof'.

It should here be observed that any excess of water passing over the plates which is not congealed is pumped up and used over in its partially-refrigerated state by admittingit again to the supply-pipes U.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In combination with the sides D I3 and induction and eduetion openings b, the series of stops a, arranged in rows, the stops of each row being at an angle of forty-tive degrees to those of the next row, substantially as described, whereby the vapor is kept in constant agitation and every partof it brought in contact with thesides of the eongealer, as setforth.

2. In an ice-making machine, the combination, with the frame A, reservoir D, pipe e, stop-cock d, pump G, pipes E, and spray-pipes U C', of the rectangular eougealers arranged ver tically in said frame, substantially as described, whereby the ice is formed upon both sides of each of said congealers, as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 12th day of February, 1880.

CHARLES V. GELET' [n si 

